Students and precarious living arrangements go hand in hand like frats and keg parties, cramming and coffee, and professors and elbow patches. So with another summer marching along, you're likely on the hunt for a new place, but you'll be joined by a host of students and academics searching for an ideal apartment before classes resume in the fall.

When I first came to Alberta a quarter-century ago, vacancy rates in Calgary and Edmonton exceeded 10 per cent. In Edmonton, where I lived in 1988, landlords often gave one month free on an already cheap 12-month lease. Sometimes utilities and cable were included.

Human tenants can just as easily ruin walls by putting nails in them, or allowing kids to draw on them. They can ruin carpets by walking around in muddy shoes in-house -- and by a multitude of other more creative ways. Arguably, some pets are better than their human counterparts. In fact, many pets are perfect citizens with impeccable manners. Some are not.

Buying a property to rent out is a great idea. The theory is that you find a tenant to rent it out to and let them pay down the mortgage while you sit back and build equity. Here are some tips to avoid the typical pitfalls most people face when renting our their property!

For anyone who's ever renovated in his or her home, you'll know that it takes a certain amount of imagination -- and faith! -- to envision what your new space will look like, especially if you're re-purposing a room into something new, like I just did in my client's downtown loft. He's a busy television executive and often has staff meetings and screenings in his home. This is how we transformed his space...